Incandescent Grottoes (in Shadowdark) at the Pointe-Claire Public Library: Kids Like Old-School D&D and Fierce Challenges

Our third D&D event at the Pointe-Claire Public Library is more than halfway done, with only two sessions left. I’d usually advertise these events sooner, but they always fill up within a couple of days, and I want the library’s community to have first dibs. Each event fills all 8 player slots, and with the positive feedback and requests for more, Scrying Skull is expanding to adult games as well as running another six-session campaign this winter. We’re also setting up games at Kirkland and Pierrefonds-Roxboro this spring. If they have any trouble filling, I’ll make an announcement when the time comes.

The Shadowdark system really facilitates these games. Its ruleset is a streamlined version of 5e, tweaked to be much faster and deadlier. This makes it easy to learn on the fly, fast-paced enough for 8 players to all have a voice at the table, and dangerous enough to keep everyone fully engaged for the whole session.

The Incandescent Grottoes adventure has also been a blast. While converting it to Shadowdark required some on-the-fly judgment calls, the design itself is groovy as hell and extremely fun. There are tons of memorable monsters and locations, all set up in a sandbox style that encourages improvisation and creativity with its many moving pieces. Gavin Norman is a god-tier adventure designer, and the art is fantastic.

The kids are really into the old-school playstyle, too. The sense that actions have severe and immediate consequences resonates with them and keeps them thinking critically. After a dwarf character died from drinking a poisoned potion after just one failed save, they’re likely to find ways—both ethical and otherwise—to test potions in the future. One girl even commented that she liked how fast the death was (compared modern systems, I'm sure).

Shadowdark and old-school adventures seem to be a winning formula for pick-up games at public libraries. I’m having as much fun running these sessions as I do with my personal games, and the response has been fantastic. Stay tuned for updates on more public games, and for my thoughts on how old-school design implemented in modern systems would make gameplay way more exciting and engaging.